Hello!
To use the forum, login or register above.
(If you are already logged in above, please click here)
Automatically update order status based on tracking
As a shipper, I typically don't update the order status to "Shipped" until I've confirmed that the carrier has possession of the package. Most orders are picked up from my house by the post office and I can't confirm they're gone until at least the evening when I return, and frankly I often don't get around to logging back in to update status until the next day.
Since you now monitor tracking through the order page, it is possible to have an option to automatically mark the order shipped once the carrier has confirmed through tracking that they have physical possession of the package?
In this example, the package was put out on 2 Oct and picked up that day. I updated the status the morning of 3 Oct at 11:42, but you can see that there's tracking activity earlier - 3 Oct at 7:10am. In fact the first scan confirming receipt was from 2 Oct at 10:40pm, so the buyer could have gotten an email from BrickOwl with a status change a day earlier.
tl;dr: Make an option to automatically update order status to Shipped once the tracking shows confirmation that the carrier has physical custody of the package.
Since you now monitor tracking through the order page, it is possible to have an option to automatically mark the order shipped once the carrier has confirmed through tracking that they have physical possession of the package?
In this example, the package was put out on 2 Oct and picked up that day. I updated the status the morning of 3 Oct at 11:42, but you can see that there's tracking activity earlier - 3 Oct at 7:10am. In fact the first scan confirming receipt was from 2 Oct at 10:40pm, so the buyer could have gotten an email from BrickOwl with a status change a day earlier.
tl;dr: Make an option to automatically update order status to Shipped once the tracking shows confirmation that the carrier has physical custody of the package.
This discussion has been closed.
Powered by Vanilla
Comments
With everything you write, i would think you answer our own question. You can not keep looking for when your order is picked up. But why do you not see it as just, out of your hands?
When you packed and completed the order, you went out and did the first process of the shipping! Being from you/your store to the mailbox / drop off. Hence, the shipping to the buyer is in process. So why not just set the stage to shipped then?
Now compared to an automated update to the order.
Not all orders would be with tracking, so brickowl would not have a way of tracking those "normal" parcels being shipped by mail or anything "none" track-able.
So in my view, i think you create a problem / worry for yourself that is not needed, and can be "fixed" very easily.
Second, I do see myself part of the shipping process. I am the shipper! I suppose I could consider it shipped when I put it in the mailbox, but again maybe this is US-specific. My mailbox is at my house. Until the postal service picks it up, I could bring it back inside. (in fact I've done that a few times when buyers have messaged me with a late change). To me, "Shipped" is final, it means the package is gone. So if I drop the package off at the post office into a locked mailbox I mark it shipped immediately. But I don't feel right telling a buyer their package is shipped when it is 10 meters from my front door.
However my larger point is that this could act as a failsafe. Even if I intended to mark it shipped as soon as it exited my house, I might forget. But BrickOwl won't forget. BrickOwl now tracks packages automatically and could mark it shipped as soon as there's proof that the package is gone, providing a service to the buyer despite my forgetfulness.
I'm not suggesting that this is the *only* way orders get marked shipped, just that BrickOwl backstops it so it can get marked shipped off the seller forgets.
I'm surprised to see you call this a niche case. Do you mean you think most orders don't have tracking? Or that most sellers mark the item shipped before they leave the sellers custody? Am I the only seller that has forgotten to mark an order shipped?
I'm fine with it being opt-in from my perspective as a seller, but I think there are benefits to the buyer as well if BrickOwl can provide faster information to them in some cases.
I do understand many stores prefer to only mark as shipped once it has left their posession. I'm afraid the suggestion would be quite complicated to implemented to cover this situation.
@Bricklanta - If we look outside of BrickOwl, and even how PayPal operates when you print a label, orders are immediately put into a Shipped state (often with a shipment notification sent with tracking when applicable). LEGO S&H is a great example. You'll get the shipment notice, and see the tracking doesn't update for several days. When you print a label on PayPal (or even eBay), it also automatically updates the tracking and status to shipped. This is considered the industry norm in e-commerce and many productivity tools that assist in orders and shipment handle it this way.
Speaking only for myself, I mark it as shipped once it's packed and labelled and ready for pickup by the carrier or been dropped off (and may or may not have been scanned yet, or may be untrackable mail). I completely understand your preference though to wait until you know the carrier has it in their possession. But I do also believe that many sellers would consider a package that is sealed and in the pickup bin/mailbox to be finalized, and the equivalent of it having been put in the locked dropboxes or with the carrier. Larger stores also would struggle with trying to manage this type of scenario, so I suspect it's only smaller stores that can do so (not that it makes it any less important, but more "niche").
As for the question about forgetting to update to Shipped, I can't say that's a thing I commonly forget to do (and especially for tracked, because I have to manually paste in the tracking and I know that to generate the shipment message, it needs to be set to shipped). But again, I do not follow the same process that you do. I still consider it niche because it's only very specific cases that this occurs (your mailbox pickup, and not wanting to set it to Shipped until you knew the carrier had it).